Most common iOS passcodes discovered by developer
We're going to guess your passcode, the set of four numbers you use to get into your iPhone when you unlock it. Ready? Is it 1234? 0000? 1998?
If it's any of those, you may want to change it. A developer named Daniel Amitay runs an app called Big Brother Camera Security that uses its own in-app lockscreen, and he's anonymously been tracking the numbers used there. Thinking that the numbers chosen for that lockscreen are probably similar to the main iPhone lockscreen, he's released some information about what people use, shining some light on what are probably the most common four-digit iPhone lock codes.
It's pretty fascinating -- the easy ones to remember like 1234 and 0000 are the most common choices (just like 123456 and "password" are the most common real passwords), and there's a real trend of using actual years for the password, perhaps the first year you bought the iPhone or created the code. And the numbers were surprisingly similar -- 15% of all passcode sets monitored were represented by just 10 different passcodes, which means that if a hacker punches just 10 codes in and yours happened to be one of those, it's game over for your security.
In other words, if you're really concerned about locking someone out, "1980" isn't going to cut it any more.
[via BGR]
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We're going to guess your passcode, the set of four numbers you use to get into your iPhone when you unlock it. Ready? Is it 1234?...
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Just a thought... why does Apple restrict the passcode to just four? Why not five? Or six? The screen can accommodate it and it would increase security considerably.
June 15 2011 at 12:52 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyTurn off the "Simple Password" option, and you can.
June 15 2011 at 2:38 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI use the area code for the city I used to live in. It got changed like 5 times too, but I still use the old code. Should be pretty secure.
June 15 2011 at 4:37 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyYou have a magical 4 digit area code?
June 15 2011 at 11:18 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply
VanillaSpice
He has a magical 7 digit area code, used to have a 5 digit area code, and could have used either with Simple Password turned off, or four digits from either with it turned on.
June 17 2011 at 4:41 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate downThanks God my 5432 isn't there... oooppsss.... it is now :/
June 15 2011 at 3:09 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyWhat I think's funny is that not a lot of people don't know that you can turn the simple passcode off on the iPhone and use the qwerty keyboard instead.
June 15 2011 at 2:24 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyWhat was he thinking ? That Apple would allow that ? Now he's most likely banned as a developer. For my app I had already to adapt the EULA to explain that I'm asking for the email address of the user + the user has the option to opt-out.
And this guy anonymously tracks passcodes ???? C'mon how stupid can you be ?
It's an app that is a PASSCODE SIMULATOR. he collects data from that.
June 15 2011 at 12:03 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply"which means that if a hacker punches just 10 codes in and yours happened to be one of those, it's game over for your security."
All of which is less useful to hackers if people just use the passcode lock that's built into iOS; enter the wrong passcode five times, and you're locked out for 1 minute. Enter a sixth wrong code, you're locked out for 5 minutes. A seventh, and it's another 15 minutes' wait. Then an hour, then a full day. On the tenth wrong code, the device gets wiped.
Also, could you guys fix your friggin comment sign-in? It's even worse than the old system, which i never thought possible.
What is the significance of the third most common code, 2580?
June 14 2011 at 11:04 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyIts straight down the middle of the keypad
June 14 2011 at 11:17 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyWithin a day, Apple removed his app for collecting passcodes
http://buzzintechnology.com/2011/06/apple-removes-the-app-that-revealed-most-common-iphone-passcodes/
What in the hell was this idiot thinking when he did this?!?
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